This invention is directed to techniques to distribute software and prevent its unauthorized transfer.
It is desirable to distribute software electronically and still license it in some manner. Traditionally there were two ways of doing this licensing. One was shipping a CD with a software that required a license key. All CD""s for a given product would have the same software, except for the license key that was required. This is a common way of distributing software for desktop applications. A second mechanism has a licensing software library built into the software. Both mechanisms are often used to down load software from the Internet.
One approach is a product Flex1M offered by Globetrotter. With this product a distributor buys the software, bundles the software with application software, and uses the bundled mechanism for generating keys.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a method of downloading software over a network includes downloading the software and installing. Installing the software includes generating an installation key by using a random number generated from a seed that is the value of a client system internal clock at the exact moment in time to the millisecond at which the software installation program was run on the client, and producing an access code by combining the installation key and user name and performing a modulo operation on the result.
According to an additional aspect of the present invention, a computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for installing downloaded software on a client system over a network, includes instructions to cause a computer to generate an access key by receiving an installation key produced using a random number generated from a seed that is the value of a client system internal clock at the exact moment in time to the millisecond at which a software installation program was run on the client produce the access code by modulo combining the installation key and user name received by the client system.
One or more of the following advantages are provided by one or more aspects of the invention.
The invention obviates the need to ship software on a CD, allowing for a purely electronic distribution method. The invention also avoids the complexity of licensing libraries built into the software. The invention delivers software that requires a key that can only work on one computer.